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Sunday, September 11, 2011

Egyptian Schools Are Breeding Grounds For Rebellion

Although designed to instil loyalty to the regime, Egyptian
schools have been unwittingly promoting opposition to the state

By Khaled Diab

The popular sentiment in Egypt's schools reflects the grievances that fuelled the revolution. Photograph: Khalil Hamra/AP

Although
education systems around the world seek to produce "good citizens",
schools in Arab countries have the additional function of teaching students to
obey – and fear – the regime.

"The
curricula taught in Arab countries seem to encourage submission, obedience,
subordination and compliance, rather than free critical thinking," the
Arab Human Development Report complained in 2003.

While
few would dispute that Arab state schools try to inculcate subservience, it
appears no one bothered to ask whether they were succeeding. But now, research
by Hania Sobhy at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London suggests
that in Egypt, at least, this most central exercise in promoting conformity and
obedience has been deftly subverted and disobeyed by pupils, and to a lesser
extent by teachers.

In
addition to certain school subjects with an overtly "patriotic" focus
that exalt the "achievements" of the state and effectively equate the
Egyptian regime with the nation, the school day itself starts with the highly
regimented morning assembly. "The central ritual of Egyptian schools is
the taboor (line up)," Sobhy said.

The
taboor is supposedly a time for pupils to connect with their nation and express
patriotism by saluting the flag and singing the national anthem. In a telling
indication of where the former regime's priorities lay, what many would regard
as a hollow ritual is so hallowed by the ministry of education that it is
"decreed and carefully delineated", Sobhy pointed out.

Yet,
"more often than not, taboor is not in fact prepared nor performed,"
she said. "More importantly, most secondary school students do not
attend."

When
the taboor does take place, most youngsters fail to salute the flag or sing
alternative – usually obscene – versions of the national anthem which,
according to Sobhy, are "typically variations on themes of abuse by the
nation, disentitlement and failure, of being violated or raped by the nation,
or the nation being a 'prostitute'."

This
rebellion and disaffection is hardly surprising, given that outside the
official curriculum school provides pupils with harsh lessons on class, youth
exclusion, arbitrary punishment and the importance of connections. "The
school gives very practical and concrete citizenship lessons to children –
lessons about their differentiated entitlement to rights," Sobhy said.

This
is a far cry from the 1952 revolution's promise to provide free and equitable
education for all Egyptians. In Egypt today, anything approaching quality
education is provided only in the private sphere.

In
addition to a plethora of private schools of varying quality and cost for those
who can afford them, the dysfunctional state system itself is also largely
stratified and class-based, with middle-class children going to general
secondary schools, while the bulk of poorer pupils attend the marginalised and
chronically underfunded technical schools.

Moreover,
the state system has gone through a de facto privatisation in which underpaid
teachers are unable or unwilling to teach in the classroom and coerce pupils
into taking private lessons if they want to pass their exams. This failure has
transformed state schools into breeding grounds for disaffection.

"The
level of boldness and opposition voiced point to how deep the resentment [and]
anger … runs among large segments of the population," Sobhy said.
"There was a surprising level of 'politicised' and highly oppositional
discourses given the stereotypes of apathy and submissiveness."

And
despite the best attempts of the state and teachers to beat pupils down, the
youngsters interviewed by Sobhy demonstrated political awareness and voiced a
powerful note of defiance similar to that expressed by millions on the streets
of Egypt this year. "We don't have belonging. We are growing up in an age
when the country doesn't give us anything," one girl told her.

In
this regard, Sobhy views schools as a weather vane of the mood in Egypt as a
whole: they highlighted "the themes and content of the grievances that
fuelled the popular movement that deposed Mubarak".

"Would
we be like this if we did not have all this theft and corruption?" one boy
told her, while another insisted: "To fix things, everyone has to be
removed … We need all new people."

Less
than a month before revolutionary fever gripped the country, pupils at
semi-private state schools known as national institutes went on strike,
organising sit-ins and marches in opposition to a ministerial decree they
believed threatened their schools. "The demonstrations and chants – and
the security presence and threats – were really similar to many of the scenes
we saw in January," Sobhy said.

The
experience of young Egyptians in state schools shows that coming generations
are both politically aware and are no longer willing to accept the scraps that
fall from the regime's table. Providing them with quality education and decent
job prospects is not only good for them and good for Egypt, it is will also be
good for any future government's survival.

-This commentary was published in The Guardian on 10/09/2011
-Khaled Diab is a Brussels-based journalist and writer

About Me

I graduated from the French University in Beirut (St Joseph) specialising in Political and Economic Sciences. I started my working life in 1973 as a reporter and journalist for the pan-Arab magazine “Al-Hawadess” in Lebanon later becoming its Washington, D.C. correspondent. I subsequently moved to London in 1979 joining “Al-Majallah” magazine as its Deputy Managing Editor. In 1984 joined “Assayad” magazine in London initially as its Managing Editor and later as Editor-in-Chief. Following this, in 1990 I joined “Al-Wasat” magazine (part of the Dar-Al-Hayat Group) in London as a Managing Editor. In 2011 I became the Editor-In-Chief of Miraat el-Khaleej (Gulf Mirror). In July 2012 I became the Chairman of The Board of Asswak Al-Arab Publishing Ltd in UK and the Editor In Chief of its first Publication "Asswak Al-Arab" Magazine (Arab Markets Magazine) (www.asswak-alarab.com).

I have already authored five books. The first “The Tears of the Horizon” is a love story. The second “The Winter of Discontent in The Gulf” (1991) focuses on the first Gulf war sparked by Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. His third book is entitled “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: From Balfour Promise to Bush Declaration: The Complications and the Road to a Lasting Peace” (March 2008). The fourth book is titled “How Iran Plans to Fight America and Dominate the Middle East” (October 2008) And the fifth and the most recent is titled "JIHAD'S NEW HEARTLANDS: Why The West Has Failed To Contain Islamic Fundamentalism" (May 2011).

Furthermore, I wrote the memoirs of national security advisor to US President Ronald Reagan, Mr Robert McFarlane, serializing them in “Al-Wasat” magazine over 14 episodes in 1992.

Over the years, I have interviewed and met several world leaders such as American President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Margaret Thacher, Late King Hassan II of Morocco, Late King Hussein of Jordan,Tunisian President Zein El-Abedine Bin Ali, Lybian Leader Moammar Al-Quadhafi,President Amine Gemayel of Lebanon,late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, Late Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat, Haitian President Jean Claude Duvalier, Late United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan,Algerian President Shazli Bin Jdid, Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Siyagha and more...